Abstract
Evidence from Chinese Wh-questions strongly suggests that LF locality is a matter of referentiality and nominality, while locality in overt syntax involves the requirement of head government. This observation echoes the split ECP approach of WAHL (1987). Specifically, Chinese arguments and referential adjuncts (when, where, instrumental how and purpose why) contrast with nonreferential adjuncts (manner how and reason why) in allowing wide-scope construals out of islands in LF. Overt Wh-fronting, on the other hand, displays an argument/adjunct asymmetry. This paper proposes to deal with the LF asymmetry within the Generalized Binding framework, in association with the referential/nonreferential distinction among Wh-elements. With the ECP reduced to the generalized binding principles (GBPs), it further argues for a type of locality employing the notion of checkpoints instead of barriers, according to which the [N] feature is checked along with the [WH] feature through Comp-indexing. Consequently, nominal clauses are always islands for nonnominal/nonreferential adjuncts, because either selectional restrictions or the GBPs will be violated by long-distance extraction. This move is independently motivated by a parallel asymmetry in Chinese (non)bridge-verb constructions. © 1994 Kluwer Academic Publishers.